Met Police plans £200m command and control system

It will handle a peak total of 2,600 calls per hour, use 400 phone operators and up to 5,000 operator seats for information access

Michael Pooler
April 27, 2012

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The Metropolitan Police is planning to implement a new command and control system worth approximately £200 million.

Its current command and control system is provided by Unisys, under a contract due to expire in October 2015.

In an online tender, which forms the second part of an original notice issued last September, the Met said it was looking for a provider to integrate, bring into service and provide technical support for the new system.

The original notice outlined the Met's ambition to deploy a computerised system capable of handling incoming calls, deploying resources and providing mobile communication. Set to go live in 2015, the system could run for up to 17 years.

The command and control system will need to be capable of handling a peak total of 2,600 calls per hour, involve 400 phone operators and up to 5,000 operator seats for information access.

While the provision of the service is initially only intended for use by the Metropolitan Police, the notice indicated that it could be rolled out to other emergency services in the UK.

A spokesperson for the Met explained that provision of the service had been split into two separate tenders “to achieve the best of breed suppliers”, but added that it is possible that a single supplier could be awarded both contracts.

They also confirmed that as of yet there are no preferred bidders for the first part of the tender.